The present invention relates to a printing system comprising a printer and a data processing apparatus such as a print server for transmitting job data to the printer.
In a printing system comprising a printer and a print server (for example, a personal computer) for transmitting job data such as image data or text data to the printer, a printer driver for controlling the printer is installed on the print server such that the print server can recognize a printer to which the job data is to be output. In this printing system, various kinds of conditions such as a print output time and the number of sheets to be printed are normally set on the printer driver in the print server, and then, the set information is transmitted to the printer, thereby controlling the printer. Moreover, the print server can acquire information on a printer body, for example, information on operating states (such as sheet feeding, printing and sheet discharging) and error information (such as a sheet feeding error), or information on an optional device to be connected to the printer body such as a double-sided printing unit or a finisher, for example, information on the connected state or error state of the optional device. In relation to this, in a system disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-222445, specified information on a printer can be transmitted to a print server via bidirectional communications, wherein a change in the specified information already set can be noticed to the print server.
However, in the conventional system, the acquired information on the printer and its optional device could not be reflected in the printer driver installed on the print server. Therefore, for example, even if consumable items such as sheets, toner or staples were used up in the printer, an operator could still execute setting on consumable items on the printer driver. As a result, the printer and its optional device could not cope with the received job data, and a finish was changed or the job data was discarded.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved printing system and method of controlling the printing system capable of solving the above-mentioned problems of the conventional system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing system and method of controlling the printing system in which information on a printer body and its optional device, received from a printer is reflected in a printer driver installed on a print server, thereby enhancing efficiency of a printing operation.